


Carnation

by mid_nightowl (orphan_account)



Series: Fire Emblem - Requests [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: @requester - bless you for requesting this i love this ship, F/F, brief mentions of violence, implications of fricking, like honestly i think its so implied that some people could probably miss it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-10
Updated: 2016-06-10
Packaged: 2018-07-14 05:49:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7156091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/mid_nightowl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How strangely coincidences could bring together the pieces and define what had been there all along, but too subtle to notice.</p><p>In which a female ninja begins to fall for her childhood friend. A request piece for an anonymous requester on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carnation

It had only been a request to have her cards read.  
In all it was not really a surprise - many in their makeshift, put-together army had their cards read, though Kagerou herself was one of the few Orochi would read for without asking for materials in return. In fact, she clapped her hands together with a wide smile of delight that her oldest friend had come to her for a consultation. Many came to her requesting to know of how their welfare would be after the next battle, if they would ever marry, and such - Kagerou had simply come to her for a general reading.

She had watched the diviner's hands throughout the entire session; even doing something as mundane as laying out the cards in the order they were drawn. Something about the deftness she displayed and the perfectly oval nails had her temporarily hypnotised, until everything went quiet and still and Kagerou realised that the cards had been drawn.  
The cards drawn had been spread over the table, though the meaning was lost to her - Orochi was using the cards made specifically for her by Kagerou, sure, but she was not well versed in the interpretations of them. Orochi, however, raised an eyebrow and clicked her tongue. It turned out, she had explained, that the drawn cards all seemed to be pointing to the fact that Kagerou would soon find a new lover, and begin a new relationship that was destined to be a positive union, unlike her last. Embarrassed and shy, Kagerou had left with questions racing through her brain - who was this new person and how would she find them? Would she already know them? Would this person be an enemy met on the battle front?

The questions plagued her even as she fell to sleep that night.

 

  
Days bled into weeks and swept through to months; the divinations had begun once in a blue moon and eventually turned more frequent than the rain itself. What began as general divinations with no particular request became more pointed. Soon they became a regular occurrence, the ninja and the diviner sat around a table with whatever divination tool was of use at the time, be it cards, water and dye, fire, or leaves.  
Not once did it occur to either women that the divinations had become so recurrent due to the mutual need to see each other, the easy chats over tea that came after each session, the moments between them where eye contact had been kept too long and had to be broken, for awkwardness' sake. The lingering looks, fluttering stomachs and smiles so wide and heartfelt they almost hurt, had become almost second nature to them, in a way that guaranteed that without outsider perspective they would never truly understand what they had felt.

 

And then, one day, Orochi had been struck by an arrow that had been too fast to counter with a spell. The wound was severe, requiring her to be immediately removed from the battlefield and transported to the healers on hand.

 

Never in Kagerou's life had a battle passed so painfully slowly. Every second she was not reacting to a life and death situation, her mind ticked back to Orochi, and whether she would survive, making her stomach twist violently in on itself.

 _Would they ever have another divination session?_  
_Would there ever be another bout of airy laughter from the woman as they chatted together?_  
_Would they ever again have that moment where they had locked eyes for a fraction too long and had to look away, resultant in shy laughter?_

The thought that it might be over was almost too much to bear. Almost too much to stand. As though a section of her own soul would be torn from her body were Orochi to leave.

 

  
The first thing she did was visit Orochi when she heard that she had been stabilised. She was indeed stable, albeit with her midriff wrapped in so many bandages that it seemed to be a hassle just to change from laying down to sitting up. She saw her in the healers' cot, pale from pain and blood loss, but so alive that Kagerou, were she less controlled, could have dropped to her knees and sobbed.  
And it was at that moment the pieces fell together.  
So she gently kissed her best friend's forehead, and apologised, and stated that she hoped she would understand. Instead of a backlash, what Kagerou received was a kiss of her own.

In that healers' tent, with Orochi wounded and vulnerable in the infirmary crib, was the moment the girls allowed themselves to know they loved each other, far too much to let each other go. As time rolled on, it would be something they would fondly remember - their first kiss, and in the infirmary while one of them was at death's door, no less. But death had been their uninhibitor, and perhaps without it they would not be were they were, curled around each other, the blankets wrapped tight around them to protect against the winter chill, their shortness of breath and red faces having very little to do with the cold air.

They smiled at each other softly in the harsh cold of the night, and fell asleep together.

 

 

How strangely coincidences could bring together the pieces and define what had been there all along, but too subtle to notice.

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn't my first time writing this way, per se - I've been utilising descriptive-only prose for a few years, but this is the one I feel most uncertain on, like there might be something missing that I haven't noticed yet. Maybe it's because I love this pair so much that nothing I write can do it justice, who knows?
> 
> Also thank you to my absolutely lovely girlfriend and best friend - without you two I'd have likely still been struggling with writers' block for another two days.
> 
> I'm also still taking requests - if you enjoyed this piece or the previous request in this collection, please send a request over at cranberryduceus.co.vu !!


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